Common Terms

Digital Music Services (DMS) can be broadly split into two types, “Full Catalogue” and ‘Specialist’.

“Full Catalogue” DMS take all our releases (subject to any limitations you might set in the rights section of the portal). iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Beats, Rdio, are all “Full Catalogue” services.

‘Specialist’ DMS cater for specific genres or styles. Examples would be Bleep and Boomkat for electronic music, Beatport, Traxsource, Digital Tunes for dance music etc.

It’s important that you discuss with your label manager which stores you feel are relevant to your label, so we can ensure that they ‘subscribe’ your catalogue.

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a unique 12 digit number used for identifying sound recordings and music videos. To assign ISRC codes, labels will need to be registered with the relevant licensing body for their home territory. In the UK this is PPL. A label can generate their own ISRCs using an assigned prefix and adhering the format described here.

ISRCs are required when manufacturing CDs and/or releasing products for digital services and are used to track plays and downloads of your track in order to correctly allocate royalties. Music videos are also usually assigned a separate ISRC. IFPI provide details information about ISRCs here.

A UPC (Universal Product Code) is a unique number used to identify a specific product. On physical items this is often represented as a barcode. Generally this will be a 13 digit number (known as an EAN13) though some products from North America may feature 12 digit codes.

Each product you sell must be assigned a unique UPC. Where your release is offered on multiple formats (e.g. CD Album, LP and Digital) each format will need its own UPC. Kudos can generate EAN13 codes for your products free of charge but you should supply the existing code if your product has already been assigned one elsewhere. Artwork for All CD and vinyl releases should incorporate a barcode and it is vital that this matches the UPC registered in our system.

Here is some information about applying a barcode graphic to your artwork.